"Absorbing and revelatory" - praise for Tim's Purcell album

Since it’s release in October 2018, Tim’s album, Songs and Dances, dedicated to the works of Henry Purcell has received much acclaim. The programme features vocal and instrumental works with the French ensemble Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien under the direction of François Lazarevitch and was released on the Alpha Classics label. In the coming seasons there will be further opportunities to hear this album live, as Tim and the group tour the programme in Europe.

“a top-class English countertenor of the kind that could have been made for this music, notwithstanding that not everything here was written for his voice-type. His singing radiates rich colour, smooth lyricism and exquisite musicality”
Gramophone

“absorbing and revelatory”
Sunday Times (Album of the week)

“The voice of Tim Mead fascinates in all situations with its clarity, intonation, purity and warmth. The countertenor consciously dispenses with superfluous, superficial effects and focuses entirely on the original score, which he enriches with well-dosed adornments. A pleasure!… This CD could run on an endless loop!”
rbb Kulturradio

“Mead communicate with every note... How he focuses on the immediate, natural expression of the Purcell songs here and in the whole program and celebrates it with his sometimes luminous, sometimes delicately floating and then moving, bittersweet vocals”
Rondo (5 stars)

“Through the elaborate decorations, the rich and highly imaginative continuo group and the energetic but always controlled vocal contributions of Tim Mead (Strike the viol) it has become a varied, lively and sometimes even swinging whole.”
Klara (5 stars)

“A beautiful immersion in the music of the British Orpheus… Counter-tenor Tim Mead has one of the most distinct styles. In addition to the intrinsic beauty of a warm and expressive tone, we appreciate the simplicity of speech, the concern for ornamentation in the service of the text, so essential for Purcell. And especially the ease of phrasing.”
ON-topaudio (5 stars)

“a virtuoso sense of pleasure and vivacity, but certainly also the majesty of the voice of Tim Mead who reigns supreme in the repertoire of his homeland.”
La Babillard

The album is available to purchase, download and stream here.